A night of presentations with a twist. 14 presenters each get 5 minutes to talk about their subject. 20 slides that auto advance after 15 seconds. It is quick, fun, smart and fills the Know Theater. Our next one is January 20th.

To qualify this, I should say that these type of short-format talks have been going on in the area for a while now time under different names. Whether you call it Ignite, Pecha KuchaNight, Open Mic night, lightningtalks, jolt talks – the events are always fun… AND educational!

I love these events. I try to make them whenever they occur, and hope to see you there on the 20th.

The Center of Innovation program at the College of Applied Science at UC aims to show seniors that their choices for employment upon graduation is not limited to Fifth Third, Kroger’s, and Great American Insurance (not that there’s anything wrong with those fine companies). The program also aims to show them that, in a region full of marketing, design, and business talent, there is serious need for young technology talent with an entrepreneurial bent. For those who might want to take the plunge, the program also outlines business skills and resources they’ll need to complement their technology skills.

This past Tuesday I gave a short talk to students in the Innovation Seminar series in CAS at UC about what' it’s like to work in a startup from a coder’s point of view. I talked about transitioning from a cubicle farm job to a startup environment, the nature and pace of working in a startup, and the tons and tons of learning that is inevitable.

You won’t get a lot from these slides without the narrative, but I post all my talks here so I thought I’d post this one.

I had a good time at Cincinnati Social Media's Open Mic night. Unfortunately, I only caught snippets here and there of the talks. The audio in the venue was poor in general, and the people in the back of the room were interesting to talk to, so I spent a good deal of time doing that instead. Apologies to the organizers. But it was the first event of its kind around here and I think the next one will be better. I think it should be in an auditorium-like setting as opposed to a bar, so that the audience is more captive. I know, why don't I organize it, right?

One speech in particular caught my eye: Beyond Free Agent Nation by Brian Lecount. In it, he discusses the slow transformation of the American workforce. Some 18-month old data that he quoted stated:

8.3 million independent contractors comprise 16% of American workforce.

74 million 1099's were sent out (2008?)

It was a great talk and pointed out the many challenges of this newfound trend. For example, many who make the leap to independence underestimate how much time is spent on administrative work.

And then there is coworking, a trend that is sweeping the nation. According to Wikipedia:

Coworking is an emerging trend for a new pattern for working. Typically work-at-home professionals or independent contractors or people who travel frequently end up working in relative isolation. Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space.

Brian had some strong opinions about coworking, in particular, how it was missing real business development. Community is great and all, but how much value is that network really building?

In any case, if you haven't heard, I am involved in a coworking movement that has started in Cincinnati. Go to the site and take the survey. Coworking spaces are popping up all over the country. In some cities, it's simply about renting desks, and that's okay. But in other cities, it is having a real transformative effect on these cities in how people with ideas get together and make their cities better. Hopefully, in Cincinnati, it will become the latter.

InOneWeekend is an innovation and entrepreneurship organization that hosts participant-driven weekend events that create and launch viable start-ups in a single weekend. Our low-commitment, low-cost, high-return, highly awesome events allow like-minded, diversely experienced individuals to create an elevating experience and quite possibly the next big thing.

I participated in InOneWeekend last year and can say that no matter what the outcome of the work, the experience itself was extraordinary. Not only was the weekend-long coding quite fun, I learned a great deal from all the non-programmers - marketers, designers, business planners, attorneys - that were crammed into the same space. There is only space for 100 participants, so sign up today!

InOneWeekend 2009 - 100 people create a start-up in a weekend

When: Friday, August 28 - Sunday, August 30

Where: Tangeman University Center at the University of Cincinnati

What: A special keynote speaker (!) will kick-off the second annual InOneWeekend with a lecture open to the public on Friday afternoon. Then the selected 100 participants will brainstorm over 300 ideas with Jeff Stamp of Bold Thinking and vote on the concept. Saturday, they will build the product and write the business plan and investor presentation. Sunday: Launch!

WAITLIST OPEN: InOneWeekend is assembling the dream team of design, technology, and business participants. To find out more and apply, visit www.inoneweekend.org and click on 'Register for upcoming events'

Done? Here is the salient point: Advertisers, we are still worth spending money on. Buy ads from us!

I understand everyone has to make a living. But this is a bit of salt in the wound. I expected the post to be apologetic. But there was no apology. I expected sympathy. No sympathy towards its former employees or their families was mentioned. Not even a little regret. Here is what I read:

Naysayers have predicted our demise many times over those years, but today The Enquirer reaches 64 percent of local adults every week, or 803,800.

Look at our reach, buy ads from us!

Enquirer Media does not have an audience problem. Nearly two-thirds of the market will read our newspaper this week. It’s the economy.

Look at our reach, buy ads from us!

And, we’re more than a newspaper. Enquirer Media reaches 83 percent of the adults in its core market every week with one of our products. Moreover, it reaches those people nearly five times.

Look at our reach, buy ads from us!

We work for our advertisers. The newspaper and digital initiatives continue to provide the same strong results for our advertisers. We help them understand and employ today’s technology to grow their business and reach their goals.

Look at our reach, buy ads from us!

We have talented, flexible employees. And we still have, by far, the largest local footprint in terms of content gathering, print and online audience, promotional capability and sales capability.

Join Next American City and our local partners — SoapboxMedia.com, CincinnatiInnovates.com, Northern Kentucky Forum and Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation — as we present a salon at the Northern Kentucky University Student Union, featuring a conversation about how Cincinnati is making strides toward innovation.

The Cincinnati region’s institutions and companies lead the world with their innovative products, processes and people. How can the community tap that internal culture to inspire a broader civic culture that makes Cincinnati synonymous with creativity, ideas and energy?

At a recent OINK-PUG meeting, the accessible folks from ShareThis.com talked about their ubiquitous Javascript button and their server infrastructure.

If you aren't familiar with ShareThis, they provide the sharing button that appears at the bottom of this very blog post. Every page I go to these days seems to have the little green button. Occasionally I find myself wanting to share a page that uses not ShareThis but one of the alternatives, and I find myself cursing because I do not have immediate access to my contacts. (Thank goodness I have the ShareThis Firefox add-on to fall back on.) I bet that there are a lot of people in Cincinnati using the button on their web properties, and don't even know that the company is based right here in the Queen City.

ShareThis started in Columbus, moved to Cincinnati, and now has an office in Mountain View, California. They boast a number of accomplishments to be envied by any company in any city, the least of which being $21 million in venture funding. A $21 million dollar funded consumer internet company, in Cincinnati?

But equally impressive to those in the industry is the raw technology that powers their infrastructure. ShareThis was one of earliest case studies on Amazon Web Services, and the Rightscale demo given that night was memorable (maybe that says more about Rightscale).

They've got that hockey stick growth according to relevant traffic measures, so I'm excited to see what happens from here onward. Let's downplay that Mountain View office, and keep the PR coming from Ohio.

This is the intro to a series of blogs coming up that all submit the same theme. Perhaps it will become a longer series.

I have observed or have been sent a few things lately that keep sticking in my mind. Each of these sticks in my mind because they are or imply, well, super awesome things about Cincinnati. When I think about them, I think, "Wow. That's incredible. Is this happening in other cities?" And I am left to wonder. (The answer is probably yes, but still it feels good to wonder.)

And these aren't impressive in an obvious way, the way that maybe we have sports teams that dominate, or the way that our modern art museum is architecturally significant. These impress in a more subtle way (at least they're subtle to me). Or perhaps they impress only to the niche that I find myself playing in these days.

It should be noted that the proposed Mill Creek Expressway/I-75 project will essentially add one single lane of freeway in both directions of I-75 between the Western Hills Viaduct and Paddock Road, while also revamping on/off ramps, and will cost an estimated $642.5 million. That's an extra lane of freeway for 7.9 miles, plus revamping interchanges. ...In addition to the $642.5 million Mill Creek Expressway project, the Through the Valley project will engage in an additional widening exercise from Paddock to I-275 at the cost of an additional $149 million (at least).

...Coincidentally enough, if the full stretch [of the streetcar] to the zoo and back were implemented, it would be a route of roughly 7.9 miles, the same stretch of widening on I-75.

So we have critics carping on the profligacy of spending $185 million versus a whopping $800 million for freeway widening.

"PK Vol. 1 was such a huge success," says official organizer, Greg Lewis. "It demonstrated that the same desire that got PK started in Tokyo six years ago is present here in Cincinnati today."

Uh, I don't mean anything negative, but I know that technology groups around the region have been doing these presentations for last two years. They may not have been as flashy, and certainly none were in as cool a venue as the CAC, but they have been around. You may have heard them mistakenly referred to as Machu Pichu talks, or Pikachu presentations, but PK has been present in Cincinnati for a while now. So thanks for participating. :)

Tornado sirens sounded on and off as a high wind advisory lasted throughout the day and into the night. But the afternoon was actually pretty calm, except for a few isolated torrential rainstorms that stopped as soon as they started. Here's the end of one of those rainstorms, looking at Bellevue and Dayton.

Driving a car that is 10% more efficient uses the same amount of gas as driving 10% less.

It's a sentiment I've dwelled on before. Sure, it's great if that new pair of shoes is made locally by workers paid a living wage with sustainable materials, but do you really need a new pair of shoes? (Forgive me if my example offends those of you who love your shoes.)

I don't consider myself particularly green with the stuff I have, but I have a compulsion to own as little as possible. (Or maybe I'm just cheap.) I have a coat that used to be my dad's. All my shoes are at least 6 years old. I pretty much own things until they are run into the ground. Then I try to sell them on eBay or give them to Goodwill. Unfortunately, the more I look around, the more it feels like we live in a disposable world.

I don't know if it's my training, or if I'm just lazy, but I am also very anal about energy and time trade-offs. I hate sitting in traffic. I hate braking on hills. I love walking because even though it takes more time, I benefit from the activity and from saving gas. I meticulously load every corner of the dishwasher, and usually hand-wash pots and pans. I break down every box I throw away or recycle, not only to save landfill or bin space, but also because it means I'll have to take out the garbage less.

I like this quote from CityKin's post a lot too.

Living in a place where you can get to all the daily necessities of life by walking, biking or driving gives you much more freedom than living in a place where your only choice is driving.

I don't get to drive much, so sometimes I just like drive around at night aimlessly. Especially in the summer. At first, I felt guilty about it, like I was wasting gas, but eventually I realized the same thing in that quote. Being green is about freedom just as much as it is about anything else.

I started this post by trying to point out the flawed methodology in the study, as I usually do for negative reports. But the methodology was pretty solid. So I looked at the part of the phone survey that gathered data for this list of cities. The question went like this:

As I read through the following places, just tell me your first reaction: Would you want to live in this city or its surrounding metropolitan area or NOT want to live there?

First, …[INSERT ITEM; RANDOMIZE]

READ IF NECESSARY: What’s your first reaction? Would you want to live in [INSERT ITEM] or not want to live there? IF RESPONDENT SAYS THEY CURRENTLY LIVE IN THIS AREA, PROBE ONCE: “If you had a choice, would you want to live there, or not want to live there?”

So it really becomes a gut answer. I say a name, you give me your first reaction. And when I think about what my answers would be, all the superficial reputations I have for cities, good or bad, bubble to the top.

I put those up very quickly. Now what about Cincinnati? Obviously, I'm biased, but if really tried to pretend I was an outsider, what are the first things that spring to mind? WKRP. Rain man. Conservative.

And that's the problem we, and the likes of Detroit and Cleveland, face. Of course, Cincinnati is a great place to live for all sorts of people. But how would you know? That's the work that's never finished.

So I believe that Cincinnati might finish third from the bottom in a survey like that, even if I know it's not true.

For some reason, I think it's interesting that it's in the middle of Short Vine, an area I never took for advanced anything, despite its proximity to UC. Ever since I've been able to drive, Short Vine has conjured up images of tattoo parlors, punk clothing and beauty product stores, Bogart's, and Top Cats. Now, the only reason I walk the street is when I go to Martino's.

But I guess with all the new Uptown Consortium development on MLK, the area is changing. I always thought that the Short Vine area would be one of the best neighborhoods to live in a parallel universe. There is a library, post office, drug store, and grocery store - all the ingredients of a walkable neighborhood. But of course, it's not one of the best neighborhoods to live in, yet.

In any case, here is the building. I remember seeing the UCSC building being renovated a few years ago. I remember thinking to myself, "that's interesting. Somebody's rehabbing that building. I wonder what for?"

I can't remember where I saw this link, but I always enjoy reading about others' travels to our Queen City. In this edition, Chicago Carless goes into very specific detail about his weekend visit to Cincinnati, and why Cincinnati is cool. There's the usual praise for Skyline and Graeter's. There is also now what has been noticed for a third time by these visiting bloggers: an inexplicable schizophrenic quality to the fabric of the city and its people and almost palpable feeling of potential.

How to parse a city of aesthetic beauty, civic pride, high cultural amenities, and, at the most unexpected times, low social graces?

Again, Cincinnati and its identity crisis. Are we the North or the South? The East or the Midwest? Are we internet or manufacturing? Are we a small town with big city amenities? Or a big city with small town charms? What message does Cincinnati send?

There was no artifice here. Nothing was prettified. Just basic communication passing among familiar faces. Unexpected, a bit shocking in its primal quality. But not out of place. It did make me wonder whether inside the average Queen Citizen beat the heart of a conformer. We may be down, but we’re down together, and as long as we lie low, things can’t get much worse, so let’s just leave well enough alone.

To put it another way, perhaps: in Cincinnati, it is important to work hard, shut up, and do what you're supposed to do. It's why fancy nightclubs get so much guff. It's why people take comfort in things that have been the same and familiar for so long, and why people get upset when the Fountain gets moved 30 ft. to the north. It's why the most successful businesses here are still in manufacturing, consumer goods, and insurance, despite the best efforts of the biotech and internet sectors. It's why change happens so slowly, and it's why people segregate themselves with people who are alike.

However, in Cincinnati, it's also relatively easy to make a difference. If you want to be an up-and-comer, I don't think you have to compete with as many people like you might in other places.

These traits, positive and negative, make Cincinnati what it is: an easy place to live. Cincinnati gives quite a lot and does not ask for much in return. Friendly, inexpensive, and, despite the bellyaching, without lot of big city issues. You have world-class arts and professional sports. You can decide at 4 pm to take in a major-league baseball game at 7 pm that same day. (That may say more about our baseball team than it does our town.) People who move here tend to get stuck here. People who move away tend to come back. At least, that's been my experience.

Like his friend Dan at Park + Vine:

When he told me in 2006 he was ditching his Windy City communications career to open what I figured would be a glorified hemp shop in a marginal nabe of a secondary rust-belt town, I thought he had already begun smoking his product. As I purchased my recycled bicycle-tire wallet with the writing still on it from the happiest man on Vine Street, I knew Dan had made the right decision.

The NAACP recently launched a petition drive to place an issue on the November ballot that would amend the city’s charter to prevent Cincinnati officials from spending money on the streetcar project without first getting approval from city voters.

I definitely appreciate the sentiment. When the same group of people wanted to put the jail tax on the ballot, to let the people decide, I wholeheartedly agreed because I did not support the jail tax. I voted to put it on the ballot, and when it was, I voted against it (both times). But this time, I find myself on the other side of the coin.

Smitherman believes the money could be better spent elsewhere, such as in neighborhood business districts. Streetcar systems are a risky gamble that have failed in some cities, he says, and Cincinnati’s mostly would benefit people who own property along the proposed route and developers like Towne Properties, which is owned by Bortz’s family.

To be sure, it's a risk, and there are many other ways to spend the money. But let's say we take the $100 million required to build the first phase of the streetcar. The city has 52 neighborhood councils. We could give each neighborhood nearly $2 million dollars - a vast increase in their current dole - and it would certainly be put to good use. But the streetcar is projected to return $1.4 billion dollars in investment, investment that means new residents, new businesses, and higher payroll tax. Big picture here.

Also, the fact that the issue is for support of a charter amendment is a bit weird. To me - and I'm no lawyer - it's as if Congress passes an amendment to the constitution outlawing Amtrak.

In any case, let me clearly state my opinion: if this issue gets on the ballot, the streetcar proposal will fail.

Because while I believe that people are good-intentioned, the masses are dumb. The majority of people who even bother to vote will not even know about all the issues they will vote on until they are in the voting booth. Which means we will have a repeat of the kind of vote that put two stadiums on the riverfront, and of course a repeat of the vote that doomed the light rail initiative in 2002. (BTW, had the light rail initiative passed in 2002, we would have had running streetcars for the past two years already.) If it goes to the ballot, streetcars will not become a reality for at least another decade. And the NAACP has a very good record with getting issues on the ballot.

The streetcar is not a transportation plan. It is a development plan. The point of the streetcar is not to get people where they need to go. It's to get people to stay. It's to get people to live, work, and stay where we want them to stay, namely, in the city. I believe it's a distinction easily lost.

The Enquirer has reported on this Sayler Park couple charged with starving their newborn baby to death. From browsing the comments, lots of people have jumped all over this couple. Commenters have called them drug abusers, stupid, the reason for contraception, etc. All these things could be true.

But after reading the story (and this earlier one) carefully, there's nothing to suggest any of these things. There was no mention of drugs in the story at all. The couple had no criminal record (though her uncle and and mother were arrested the same day for bank robbery, which does not look good). And they had from the sound of it three healthy kids already. And the story says there was formula in the house.

Maybe they weren't bad people. Maybe the baby refused food (it happens). Maybe they were ignorant of their options, didn't have insurance, and were afraid to go to the hospital. Maybe the baby had a condition.

Who knows. There's no way to tell unless personally involved in the case. The prosecutor must have had additional information, right?

If he did not, then he broke up a decent family and sent three kids to foster care (which is no picnic) for a long time.

Now, imagine if one of the proposed streetcar routes that goes from Downtown/OTR across Broadway Commons and up Gilbert into Walnut Hills was actually built. I guarantee you Kroger would find a way to keep that store open.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you and post it. At the end, choose 5 people to be tagged. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

I am also fortunate enough to been tagged with the 25-item version, and not the 7-item version that has also been circulating. I don't have much time, so here goes.

I grew up in Northern KY.

I spent two years in Santa Barbara, CA, getting my Masters. I really went so I could live on the beach.

Other than that I have lived in the Cincinnati area my entire life.

I last visited the Philippines in 2000. Need to make time to go again.

I am one-quarter Filipino and three-quarters Chinese.

I speak no foreign languages.

My research area in graduate school was in machine learning and information retrieval.

I once took (and passed) the motorcycle course at Great Oaks. That is the only period of time I've ridden motorcycles.

I have two tattoos (vagaries of youth).

I am an Eagle Scout.

I once wandered around Hong Kong for a week.

I love Northern KY and Cincinnati equally. (Southeast IN can suck it.)

I am exactly 6' tall.

I maintained a personal blog from 1997 to 2005, writing 246 entries. Only, in 1997, they weren't called "blogs," they were called "online diaries."

On that note, once I discovered "the web" in college I couldn't stop. I spent hours in the computer lab hand-coding websites in HTML, learning vi and Unix in the process. I like to think all those sleepless nights did some good for my career. It certainly did not for my social life.

I am a pretty good hearts player.

I am stalling after 16 items.

I have over 70 first cousins, but I don't see any of them very much.

I could talk about software for hours, but no one would listen.

In another life, I would be an illustrator.

I would love to write a book (but wouldn't all bloggers?). I could go fiction or non-fiction, either way.